'They Still See Us': A New Poem by Lois Red Elk

EDITOR'S NOTE: Every day that a poem arrives from Lois Red Elk is a delight. Out on the prairie where recent bison transplants from Yellowstone are adapting to their new home as members of  the Fort Peck herd, Red Elk members "their return" to former homelands late last summer. She was among community members who greeted them with honoring songs and prayer. 

Red Elk has been doing a lot of musing about ancestry and the endurance of people over time with the Covid-19 challenge being just the latest. What are the secrets to perseverance? She says it starts with a kind of remembering based on making a pledge never to forget—and to walk forward on paths leading to knowledge and culture and history as a kind of unspoken act of faith.

"My parents were very spiritual people in the Dakota/Lakota sense and lived their daily lives with prayer and good deeds," she writes in a note from the near the place where the Mighty Missouri River enters the Fort Peck Reservoir which is really akin to small ocean in the middle of treeless high plains. 

"They maintained a daily respect for the creator, sacred spirits, ancestors and the Grandfathers and Grandmothers. I always feel so grateful to have seen this continuation of honor in my life. It is through their lives that I write my poetry and because that is all I know."

On the day her new poem arrived, she shared word that the Rosebud Sioux tribe intends to create America's largest native-owned and managed bison herd.  "This makes me so happy, I want to cry," Lois wrote. "We’re coming full circle!"

 past lives, from creation prayers with 

 the breath of the Great Spirit, from our

 life with stars to the star we call our 

Maka Ina, Mother Earth. The sacred

 Grandfathers and Grandmothers led us 

 for millions of years through fire and

 underground paths, from angels to 

 neutrinos, from buffalo lives to the 

 common man. The hallowed Grandfathers

 and Grandmother have seen us safely

 through cleansing waters, to the present 

 existence, and we are still not done with

 this earth walking. The loving Grandfathers

 and Grandmothers still see us walking holy, 

 still see us walking the paths of the four

 directions. They have shown us the yellow

 path, the way of prayer, love and truth. 

 They have shown us the red path, the way

of respect, compassion and perseverance. 

They  have shown us the black path the way of 

fortitude, sacrifice and generosity. They

 have shown us the white path the way of 

 wisdom, honor and humility. The eternal 

 Grandfathers and Grandmothers still see

us from the sacred circle into our never